E8 400MM Stainless Automatic Gate Opener for Gates up to 26 Feet Long and 1200 Pounds for Dual Swing Gate

This is my third set of gate openers for two gates. I bought a prior brand from a distributor (you can see my review to learn more) that gave me nothing but trouble (both the gates and the distributor!) However, I can say I learned a lot about installing, trouble-shooting, and repairing gate openers through that process. I had two dilemmas in that experience: 1. when to cut bait , and 2. what brand of openers to try next. None of the other brands I had looked at had any better reviews - until I found this one.The install was easy. But then again, I could probably *build* gate openers at this point. So let me instead speak to what I really think is valuable about this opener: This is an easy opener to own. Until you've had an opener that isn't, you really cannot understand the value of that.1. It works every single time. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.2. It opens and closes to the same spot. No undershooting that leaves a closed gate partially open. No overshooting that causes an automatic reversal that usually ends up closing on your vehicle. The best part is that the opener essentially "trains" itself to the stop points.3. The remote has good distance. I'm able to signal the gate and have it almost completely opened by the time I get there.4. The arms are heavy. This system just feels like quality.5. The operation is quiet and smooth. It's actually beautiful to watch because there's just the sense that all is right. No grinding motor, no jerking panel, no feeling that it may reverse itself or just simply stop.I've had one issue with the gate since install - it required the replacement of the control board (and admittedly I thought, oh no...here we go.) Jason quickly responded and sent a new board without having to wait on the return of the defective one. Upon his inspection, he found it was just simply a fuse and he apologized for not thinking to tell me to check that since it would have meant that I didn't need to return anything.There is only one change I wish in the system. As of now, it doesn't have an option to close one panel sooner than the other (though you can set it to open one before the other). That can create a problem when you have a locking mechanism installed. Although I have an existing lock that I would like to use (as protection against wind), I haven't really missed it because the gates close so solidly against a physical stop and the arms are very strong.UPDATE: July 2017 - Both sets of gate openers are still working like a dream! So incredibly pleased with this product!!!

First of all let me say the supplier JSJ Industries is really responsive and was quite helpful with the project. I say project because I needed to adapt the unit for my installation. Our gate is 800 feet from our house and there is no easy or cheap way to get power there. I had a pair of unbelievable expensive Elite gate openers that I was running on solar. One of the mother boards went south, and replacing the pair (they need to be matched) would have cost far more than the E8 system. Plus they were a pain to maintain. So out they came, and after some serious modification of my rock pillars to mount the E8-400 bars all looked good. A side note, I have 2 large solar panels and 2 deep cycle batteries that with about 80 amp-hours of capacity. The little battery they ship would be ok for emergency back up, but forget about using it for a solar application. It is handy during the install to get the bar positioned correctly though.Ok, back to the installation. I started up the system and it worked exactly as expected with one issue: The time for the gate to open was 30 seconds. My old gate operators would do it in about 12. A call to JSJ confirmed that running on 12V slows the opener way down, and using the 16VAC transformer was much faster. Seeing that getting AC to that location was not going to happen, I started looking for a plan B. The first version of this used a sine wave inverter. So the batteries hooked to the inverter hooked to the AC transformer. Another side note - the plastic case they supply is marginal. Search AMZ and get a nice BUD NEMA enclosure that has hinges and latches.Plan B worked great with one problem - the inverter and 16VAC power supply and control board drew about 1.1A continuously. My solar panels put out 7A in full sun, and the batteries have a lot of capacity, but not enough to make it through 5 cloudy winter days. The batteries died. I recharged them, and the sun came out and all was ok for awhile, but I needed a plan C.That was when my EE friend visited. After chatting about it, and a couple more questions to JSJ, he came up with the idea of switching back to battery power, but stepping the DC voltage up a bit. We measured the motor voltage in operation and it hovered just under 18V, so back on AMZ I found a nice 12VDC to 18VDC converter module. Taking out the transformer and the inverter, I hooked the DC converter module up. I powered up the system and went through the initial gate setup. It worked great, and it only drew 0.3A which I can handle easily with the solar system. The gate speed is 15 seconds from closed to open - the same as with the AC transformer.Caveat: I have not heard from JSJ that this is OK to do, and I probably voided any warranty on the system with this hack, but it saved me from trenching 800 feet through solid rock to get power down to the gate.One other note, I have an aftermarket exit loop controller, wireless opener, a wired keypad, and a fire department knox box. All of them were easy to integrate with the system and work well.2/11/17 UpdateThere turns out to be another issue and workaround with Solar if you are using a solar controller. The way the gate works is the motors will create a current spike when they reach the end of their swing. Thats how the control board knows that they are in the correct position and cuts power to the motors. This is a nice feature as it doesn't require limit switch which were a maintenance issue with my last pair of gate openers. So if you use a solar controller, there is a panel connection, a battery connection, and a load connection. Typically you would connect the load connection to whatever you are powering - in this case the gate. This problem I ran into is that the solar controllers see the (significant) current spike and decide that there is a short circuit. They kill the power to the gate and restore it after a few seconds. If you aren't around watching this you can still tell because the next time you open the gate it will be in its slow initialization mode.The workaround for this is to forget the load connections on the solar controller and run the gate straight from the battery. This works fine and since I am using the up converter voltage regulator the board doesn't even notice. The only downside is that the solar controllers use the information from the battery connection to shut off the load if the batteries get too low. So you need to make sure you have lots of battery capacity or you will shorten their life. You also lose information like current and power being used by the gate. Those are fine tradeoffs in my case.Update April 2021:In 2019 after running out of power again (heavy gate, lots of traffic) I upgraded the batteries to 2x100AH and the panels to 2x190W. I also added an upgraded solar controller. No problems at all since then. I did have the control board fail a few years back and Jason sent me a new one for about a tenth of the price of a Roboswing board, and it has been working fine ever since.